Tumble Down
by MaybeThere'sHope
Summary: Reed/Shane. This is how I picture the lead-up to their first time. It takes place the night of Shane's senior prom  i.e., Reed has graduated already . A short epilogue may be uploaded in the future, so I'm leaving it as IP. CP Coulter's Dalton!verse.


**This was originally posted on Tumblr. Anything recognizable belongs to the wonderful Mama CP Coulter. She's my hero for creating these wonderful characters. Title and Chapter inspired by Tumble Down by Marcus Foster. Great song, please give it a listen. If this were a 'movie', that would be playing in the background :)**

**Note: This is not beta'd, so my mistakes are my own. I tried to fine comb it a few times, but I still might miss things, so bear with me.**

**Enjoy!**

Prom went much as was expected of prom in this day and age. They went, they hung out for a while, but ultimately they just wanted to be with themselves, away from the crowd and the noise. So after hanging out at Shane's senior prom for about two hours, he and his older date (which automatically made him a badass, obviously) left the festivities in favor of the unusually quiet halls of Windsor.

Reed had been a tiny bit reluctant to accept Shane's offer about prom, considering it meant having to go back to Dalton for the night and relive old memories. Some of them he was entirely okay with, like remembering the good times he and Kurt shared and also the wardrobe arguments (which now seemed comical). But there were also those odd nagging memories that wouldn't let go of him. Most of those came from his junior year when everything kind of went to shit at Dalton for a while, following the whole Adam fiasco. It saddened him to think about it. It had taken Julian two years of publicly reported-on rehab to quit blaming himself entirely for what happened. He was better now, and Reed didn't remember much of the actual ordeal (courtesy of a baseball bat to the back of the head), but it was still weird coming back here after being gone for a whole year.

Nevertheless, he could never, _ever_ resist an opportunity to indulge Shane Anderson, the boy who had become his entire life after that fateful incident. It was one of those things that made you realize exactly how much you cared about a person. Sure, they'd kissed before that, and Reed already knew he was in love with Shane, but having near death experiences pretty much solidified that stuff. They'd been inseparable ever since. Two years now, they've been going strong. So, Reed gave in and agreed to escort his giddy boyfriend to his senior prom.

But now prom was over for them. They sat next to each other on the couch in Shane's Windsor dorm room (which used to be David and Wes's, oddly enough. He'd liked the layout, claimed dibs, and moved in after they graduated.) Shane had his arm around Reed's shoulders lightly, and Reed's hand was resting on Shane's thigh, his head tilted onto the taller boy's shoulder. Shane smiled every time those downy curls tickled his neck.

"Did you have fun?" Reed asked, filling in the silence. They'd both kicked off their uncomfy dress shoes and stuffy jackets, and were relaxing in the stillness.

"Of course I did!" was Shane's immediate reply. Reed could hear the edge in his voice which meant he wanted to say more, but wasn't exactly inclined to at the moment.

"What? Did you want to stay longer? I thought you said you were getting blisters from those shoes!" Reed exclaimed, turning to face him. "I _told_ you they weren't going to fit right—"

"Well of course they don't fit! Blaine's like, a foot shorter than me and he's got small feet! But who else in the world has black and white oxfords anymore? Ones that actually look like they walked out of the forties! They go so well with my tux, I had to swipe them from him. But you're right…the heels were pinching me and my toes are going to take days to uncurl. But it was worth it for my outfit to receive Reed Van Kamp's seal of approval." He smiled down at his boyfriend.

Reed just smiled. He _had_ looked exceptionally handsome tonight. But that was long gone, his shirt untucked, jacket and vest thrown to the floor haphazardly, his collar unbuttoned. Instead of looking like a cross between a suave forties gangster and James Bond, he now looked like said gangster after a barfight crossed with a little James Dean. It was incredibly…sexy. Reed blushed a little at the thought.

Shane must have read his expression, because he leaned down and placed a firm kiss on Reed's lips as if to say, _I'm thinking the same thing you are…_

Reed gave way, leaning into the kiss and allowing his arm to work its way around Shane's waist, the other hand going up into his unruly mop of curls. This had become somewhat of a routine for them. They'd make out for hours on end, groping above the belt, but never going any further than heated kissing. They'd frequently stop themselves if things got a little too heavy, as neither of them were very sure if they were ready to go further. In recent weeks, though, Shane had been very, _very_ subtly pushing boundaries, but never anything that Reed found too far. Shane would grab his hip instead of snake his arm around his entire waist, or he would pull them closer where they were touching at all points, but he wouldn't do anything to call attention to it (like roll his hips…like he wanted to so bad). They were okay with it just being that far.

They continued kissing deeply, Reed letting out those unconscious little sounds that Shane found so freaking _irresistible_, and Shane tried to hold himself back from the things he wanted to do so bad. He was doing okay for a good half hour or so of their lips constantly locked (which surprised them both a little, since they'd yet to come up for air), until he forgot to check himself and he made a grievous slip.

In the midst of their heated makeout, Shane's hand was brushing through Reed's glorious cherub curls, tracing a line down his exquisite jaw, down his perfect neck and chest. These were all things they'd done before. But then Shane let himself grab onto Reed's belt buckle, pulling slightly as if he was going to unfasten it. Nothing happened, save for the almost imperceptible little gasp of apprehension that Reed emitted. But that gasp was like a shock of electricity to Shane, causing him to jump back in horror at what he'd done. He never, _ever_ wanted to push Reed to do anything he didn't want to. After the whole ordeal leading up to their relationship becoming a reality, and Reed's skittishness at this sort of thing, well…Shane was sure that in that moment, he had officially _blown it._

He now sat a foot away from Reed on the couch, looking at him in horror, afraid to speak or even move. Reed's expression hadn't changed; he was frozen in a kind of startled blush.

And then Shane's word vomit glands kicked in, his hands raking nervously through his hair.

"Oh my god…I can't believe I…Oh god, Reed…I'm so, so sorry! I can't believe I did that. Shit…I promised I wouldn't do that to you and I…I'm sorry I couldn't stop it before it happened…I wasn't paying attention and I just got caught up and I'm sorry and oh god do you wanna stop? We can stop if you want to…" When he ran out of words to spew frantically from his short circuiting brain, he paused, looking at Reed and waiting for him to get up and leave.

But he didn't.

Instead, Reed slowly lifted his eyes to stare at Shane's wild ones. He couldn't read what was in the shorter boy's eyes…betrayal? Apprehension? Shock? Terror? A million horrible scenarios went through his head in a single second. But as Reed's gaze found his, they locked. And Reed very faintly shook his head and said in a very low whisper, "No."

Shane wasn't sure he could process things right now. He wasn't sure what that 'no' meant. Did it mean "No, I don't want to do this anymore" or "No, I can't be near you right now after that" or something else? Shane gave Reed a questioning look, hoping he'd explain. "No?" he parroted back.

"I…" Reed began in the same low whisper, like he was forcing the words out but he couldn't get the volume any higher. He sounded scared but determined. "I don't want to stop." _What? Don't want to stop what? Wait…don't want to stop…oh dear god oh god oh god short circuiting again…_

Shane tried to come to his senses after this statement. Reed was still looking at him like he was needing approval. Like _he'd_ been the one to suggest the furthering of boundaries in the first place. Could it be that he had thought about broaching the subject before, but never came out and said it? Shane could only wonder and hope. At the moment, he tried to put his serious adult hat on, metaphorically speaking.

"Reed, are you sure about—" he cut off when he looked into Reed's face. He absolutely could not describe what was there.

"Yes," he whispered again, but stronger this time. Not a timid whisper, but a volume adopted so as not to disrupt the atmosphere. "Shane, I love you," he said, putting both his hands on either side of the taller boy's face, making sure he had his full attention. "And, well…that is something to be shared with someone you love, right? You're supposed to wait for the right person? The right time? Well, that's definitely you and…I believe it's now." He finished his little speech with a tiny huff of breath, like he'd labored getting the whole thing out. He was still scared, that was obvious, but Shane also saw that determination in his eyes.

"I love you, too, Reed." Shane just simply stared at him in awe, thinking for some reason that Reed looked more beautiful in moonlight than at any other time. It lit his pale skin with a bluish glow that made him look other-worldly. And here he was, asking Shane to take the largest leap of their adolescent lives with him. For one as cautious and timid as Reed to entrust Shane with this, well…that was saying something huge. It wasn't until Reed startled him out of his reverie that he noticed he'd just been staring at him and not giving him much of an answer or action. But Reed roused his senses to the situation again.

"Shane," he whispered into the distance between them. Shane snapped out of it, looking directly into his eyes. "Kiss me." And those two words held so much pleading and determination and slight terror that it knocked the breath out of Shane for a split second. But he complied.

He leaned down slower this time, capturing Reed's ready lips in a deep kiss. Reed's mouth immediately opened and invited him in, brushing their tongues together and causing shivers of electricity to run between them. Reed's hand went back to Shane's hair, this time tugging at it insistently. While their lips were still locked, his other hand took hold of Shane's that was resting on his thigh and not sure what to do. Reed guided Shane's hand back to the spot that had initially given him pause—the now slightly loosened belt buckle. Shane couldn't help the tightness in his throat or the clench in his heart as Reed showed him that yes, he was serious about this. Shane took it as an honor, and smoothly unbuckled and slid the belt out of the loops, depositing it on the floor.

Reed's hand, in the meantime, went to Shane's shirt and made short work of the buttons all the way down, pushing it off his shoulders slowly, timidly. It wasn't like they hadn't seen each other shirtless or touched bare skin or anything; they'd gone swimming lots of times and that hadn't been that big of a deal. But this was different…the situation was vastly opposite from anything they had previously experienced.

They continued kissing throughout this phase of the situation, but Shane could tell Reed was still having trouble. His hand was shaking was he tried to undo the button on Shane's pants.

"Reed," Shane said, pressing their foreheads together. "We can still stop and wait if you want to. We don't have to do this." It killed him inside to say it, but it was true. He would stop dead in his tracks at the first sign of true protest from Reed.

But his boyfriend simply collected and steeled his features, looked Shane straight in the eye and repeated, "I _love_ you." And it was said with so much emotion and so much "this shouldn't be up for discussion anymore" that Shane couldn't argue.

With his pants half undone, both of them shirtless and slightly panting, Shane reached over and wrapped Reed's leg around his waist, pulling the shorter one into his lap. He then grabbed underneath him and heaved them both up off the couch. As Shane stood, Reed quickly wrapped both legs around his waist, his arms hugging Shane's neck tightly, their lips never coming apart. Shane walked around the couch to his bed and carefully deposited Reed down on top of the covers, following a moment later. He climbed on top, using his feet to kick his pants the rest of the way off. Reed shimmied out of his, and they worked their way under the covers.

One last time Shane paused the kissing. "Are you nervous? Because I am," he said honestly. He wasn't really nervous about the mechanics of it; after all, Blaine had given him "the talk" and he had condoms in the drawer by the bed (which Blaine had put there, and Shane noticed only later, to his deep embarrassment). And didn't _every_ teenage boy have lube in the drawer by the bed, too? He was prepared in the practical sense. Plus, he'd done this with Micah. However, he wasn't sure how he was going to deal with the fact that Reed was trusting him with his virginity. He tried to wrap his head around it, considering what he knew about his boyfriend's history with this kind of stuff. For Shane, it was vastly different. Not because he wasn't a virgin, but because he'd been ready to do this with Reed for a while.

"I am," Reed answered. "I'm nervous, but I'm not scared." And the accompanying look in his eyes was all Shane needed to relax and give in.

**Hope you liked it :) Please drop me a review? It would be greatly appreciated since Malec is my forte, and I'm not sure how well I'm doing with the Dalton boys. So, if you have the time and inclination, leave me a comment? Thanks! Love you all!**


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